It's a shame . . .

Yesterday I took some time to read some people's blogs. One blog I love reading is Perry Noble's, the pastor of NewSpring Community Church. I was scrolling through some of his archives and found this blog post. It's from a few days ago but it caught my attention I guess because of all the youth work that I've been doing lately. READ IT!

The funny thing is I only read point #4 about fundraising and how the church should never make youth raise money for trips they go on. Interesting concept.

Then something extraordinary happened . . .

Not ten minutes after I read that section (remember that I read only THAT section of that blog post) a boy walked into the office telling Derek (the Junior High leader here) that he wouldn't be able to go to camp because he and his parents couldn't afford it. I was dumbfounded! I had just read that! So immediately God grabbed my heart.

Allow me to chase rabbits for a second . . .with blow-torches . . .

It's a shame that the church is known as a power-hungry money-grabbing institution. The same kids who "can't afford" to go to camp have parents driving nice cars, living in nice houses and buying new toys to take out on the lake (seadoos, jetskis, boats, etc.) "250 dollars to go to camp! Dang, that church just wants ALL our money!" So they instill in their kids that spirituality and the Church is not worth investing money in. The truth is THIS church (Daybreak) as well as most do (or at least should) find a way to get kids to camp no matter what.

We put on a cutting edge, grade-A camp so we can create an environment where the kids have a great time and learn how they can apply spiritual truths to their lives. We create an environment that appeals to them and pumps Jesus up! And it costs a lot of money to do that. Daybreak Student Ministries definitely does not pocket even a dime of that money. But for some reason the Church nationwide has built up a reputation of being pocket-stuffers.

This kid that walked into my office, however, struggles financially. We put out memos in the church that there are some kids that don't have the financial capacity to get to camp and yet we still have people walk out the doors of this church after being "filled by the Spirit" on a Sunday morning and they never even give these kids a second glance. I see offering bucket after offering bucket go by me empty with a hundred people passing it in front of me!

SHAME ON THOSE PEOPLE who think life is about what WE can get out of it. News Flash . . . whoever dies with the most toys still dies! And I've never seen a U-Haul being pulled behind a hearse.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Church was known as the most self-sacrificing, selfLESS, giving, serving institution in the world? Wouldn't it be nice if people recognized a need and met those less fortunate where they were at? Wouldn't it be nice if the Church's focus was to bring heaven to this wretched world instead of worrying about "when we all GET to heaven?" Wouldn't it be nice if people saw Jesus when they saw the church?

Let me promise you this (I can say this because God himself promised it) that if Jesus' name is lifted up and people see Jesus through our actions and words - there will be NO mistake - He will draw ALL men to Him, period! And HEAVEN WILL CRASH INTO EARTH WITH COSMIC EFFECTS!